In a telephone network, a network cable from the central office is connected to a building entrance protector (BEP) located at the customer site, where the individual telephone lines are broken out line by line. The network cable, which consist of a plurality of tip-ring wire pairs that each represent a telephone line, is typically connected to a connector block that is an integral part of the BEP. Such connectors may be, for example, the ubiquitous 66-type punch down connector, or an SC 99 type connector block, such as are available from Lucent Technologies Inc.
A connector block has two sides: a top side which contains a plurality of wire connectors, sometimes called insulation displacement connectors (IDCs), for connecting the tip-ring wire pairs to the connecting block, and a bottom side which contains a plurality of wire-wrap terminals with each terminal being electrically connected to a corresponding IDC. The customer telephone equipment is coupled through the connector block to a central office (CO) telephone line. The CO line side of the connector is generally the bottom side of the connector block, where the CO line tip-ring wire pairs are connected using a wire-wrapping tool.
In order to verify that a network cable is properly installed and that a loop condition exists between each tip-ring wire pair and the central office, the electrical connection between each tip-ring wire pair and the corresponding IDCs is tested. Testing is typically performed by connecting a volt meter, telephone test set or other test device to the IDC terminals that correspond to the particular tip-ring wire pair under test. If a current flow is detected, or a dial tone is heard, depending on the test methodology, then a loop condition exists for that particular tip-ring wire pair. If no loop condition is found, either an electrical open or short exists on the network (CO) side of the connector, or a connection to or in the terminal block is defective. Each tip-ring wire pair is tested in this manner until a loop condition is verified for all wire pairs connected to the connector block.
A significant drawback of prior art connector blocks is that because each tip-ring wire pair must be individually loop tested, testing is very time consuming and prone to error, and typically accounts for a significant amount of the installation time of a BEP, cross connect filed or the like. Installation time would be significantly reduced if testing could be simplified.